Korea must keep proven approach to education

The following is the last of a two-part article about the Korean education system and its effect on the economy. Dr. Chris Baumann, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University and Dr. Hume Winzar, an associate professor in business at the university contributed the article to The Korea Times. — ED.

Chris Baumann

Hume Winzar

By Chris Baumann and Hume Winzar

Korea is looking back on a stellar performance when it comes to schooling and education. A well-disciplined Confucian approach has resulted not only in passing on traditional Korean values from generation to generation, but has also contributed to a high level of competitiveness through an education system that nurtures a focused performance orientation.

Korea has peak-performed at international student competitions over time, has revealed strong music and entertainment stars; up-and-coming players in golfing and gymnastics, both sports that require precision and discipline as cultivated in the Korean education system.

Strong performance aspirations have also been carried over from the education system into the economy. Global brands have emerged with Samsung/LG and Hyundai/Kia for products, and Korea Air and Asiana Airlines in services, and also strong new emerging brands such as Jeju Air with a fresh dynamic approach to affordable aviation.

Remarkably, the traditional Korean approach to education was formative in the workforce and management that has created such creative and innovative products and services. It is performance orientation that leads to creativity after all.

A strong performance orientation and disciplined approach to schooling has also resulted in strong academic results at the tertiary level with world-leading universities in Korea such as Seoul National University (SNU), Korea University and Yonsei or the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

And many Korean-educated postgraduate students achieve top results overseas at Western universities in MBA and Ph.D. programs, ranging from mid-range to elite universities, including American Ivy League institutions. Cutting-edge research is conducted at elite and aspiring Korean universities, and entry for students at all level is highly competitive.

Naturally, once graduates from such inspiring institutions enter the workforce, there is a strong leveraging effect with even stronger future push for innovation in products and services. In short, the previous Korean Confucian approach to education from kindergarten right through to university education has contributed strongly to a high level of global competitiveness of South Korea.

The challenges for Korea’s education in the near future are quite substantial. To begin with, it is never easy to maintain a leadership position over a long period of time — other nations and corporations want to catch up and attempt to copy the successful Korean approach.

Korea is becoming more Westernized with some tendency to adapt a permissive Western approach to education with less focus on academic performance. Many classes in Korean public schools are still large with approximately 40-50 students, and managing such classes without a disciplined approach is a challenge with fast dropping academic results if the Korean approach is left.

And as the country becomes wealthier and income levels grow for large sections of the population, the next generation may no longer fully understand the crucial role of education in economic progression for individuals and the country overall, unless educational performance is celebrated as it has in the past.

In conclusion, as our new scholarly study clearly demonstrates, the education-to-competitiveness link is enormously strong, and if Korea were to lose focus, change its successful approach to education that so nicely transforms into global competitiveness, lowers discipline and performance standards in schools, then the subsequent long-term effect on a drop in competitiveness with fast and dropping economic standards would be unavoidable.

Alarmingly, once the spirit in education is lost, competitiveness drops while other countries at the same time aspire to reach or surpass Korean standards. This effect would then be nearly irreversible, but that may not be well understood by today’s advocates of a permissive education approach who may easily give up Korea’s future with changes to school policy.

Based on our study, Korea is best advised to continue its current proven approach to education and as such secure its future economic and political success, prosperity, and crucially, preserve its culture in light of globalized immigrant movement.

Dr. Chris Baumann is senior lecturer at Macquarie University, Sydney, researching competitiveness, education, East Asia and customer loyalty. He is a visiting professor at Seoul National University (SNU) in Korea. Dr. Hume Winzar is associate professor in business at Macquarie University, Sydney. His current research interests are the modeling of complex systems in economics, marketing and education.